Pages

Jul 7, 2014

Second Quarter of 2014 in Music

If you read
my last quarterly recap, you’ll know that I spent the first three months of the
year alternating between pining for the warmth of spring and wallowing in the
despair of winter. Thankfully, after what seems like an eternity, the cold
receded and spring finally sprung, bringing with it livable weather conditions
and a whole bunch of new music. Now normally by the time a year reaches its
midway point, an overarching narrative starts to become pretty clear. But six
months into 2014, very little has proven to stick. In some ways, the
narrative of 2014 is that there is no narrative of 2014, especially in
comparison to the star-studded releases from 2013. But despite lacking in a
zeitgeist grabbing tent pole record, the high standard of quality set by the
year’s first quarter has yet to drop three months later.

Around the
time Against Me!’s Transgender Dysphoria
Blues dropped, I speculated that 2014 might turn out to be a great year for
unabashedly guitar centric rock bands. Though I wouldn’t expect any sea changes
to happen on a mainstream level, there have certainly been plenty of reasons to
get excited about the sound of feedback and loud drums this year. For some, the
hype has been centered on the continuing power of the so-called #emorevival, a
term that could easily have been applied to Cloud Nothings’ Attack On Memory from 2012. Their newest
record, Here And Nowhere Else, goes
for something a little more vicious. It's not as hooky as its predecessor, and the
band’s growing aggression is perhaps less of a pleasant surprise a second time
around, but Here And Nowhere Else
proves that Attack On Memory wasn’t a
fluke. Touring on that previous record’s material has honed their skills and
lead singer Dylan Baldi has developed a hell of a scream without losing any of
his ear for melody. Equally caustic is Deep
Fantasy, the new album from White Lung. But while Cloud Nothings are moving
further towards the harsher end of the spectrum, White Lung are headed in the
opposite direction. Not to say that the band has lost their edge, but Deep Fantasy strips away some of the raw
noise that obscured singer Mish Way on past releases to reveal one of the
strongest and most commanding lead vocal performances of the year.

Given all
of the immensely shitty news for women in the last three months, it shouldn’t
be too surprising that one of the most vitriolic punk records of the year would
come from a female led band. But beyond righteous fury, 2014 seems to be a huge
year for women in music, particularly in the way that the “sad girl” aesthetic
has exploded. It turns out that Marissa Nadler’s July was only a precursor. On the mainstream level there’s Lana Del
Rey’s Ultraviolence, a record that
takes her melodramatic style to its logical extremes, while in the indie
sphere, Lykke Li has delivered the year’s most tightly constructed and heart
rending breakup record in the form of I
Never Learn. And though it has yet to fully sink in with me, Emma Ruth
Rundle’s Some Heavy Ocean is a
fittingly spooky companion piece to her Sargent House label mate Chelsea
Wolfe’s excellent release from last year.

Sometimes
however, the best albums of the year are the ones that can’t be squared away
into a clearly defined narrative or trend. Such is the case with To Be Kind, the new album from Swans.
Since reuniting the band back in 2010, Michael Gira has proven that age has
done nothing to diminish his need to push the boundaries of his art, or the
limits of his audience's comfort. Like 2012’s The Seer, To Be Kind is a
massive undertaking at two hours in ten songs, a good deal of which crossing
the 10-minute mark and then some. But while the essential ingredients to the
new Swans sound remain intact (hypnotizing repetition, mind numbingly dense
blocks of sound and the distinct sensation that your brain is melting out of
your ears), this time around Gira and company have given an oddly
positive spin to their otherwise soul crushing sound. Underneath the
multilayered percussion, horse sounds, and blood curdling screams beats a heart
filled with something almost like love. The heat of summer is bearing down on us
as I write this, but I’m only excited about what the next three months have to
offer. In the words of Gira himself, BRING ON THE SUN.

Other Great Stuff:

Fucked Up’s Glass
Boys, a fantastic “we’re getting old” punk record that brought me into this
band’s camp in a big way after years of ambivalence

How To Dress Well’s “What
Is This Heart?” which I expect will be a grower, and a shoe-in for a lot of
the end of the year discussion

Lil B’s Hoop Life
which proves that The Based God is at his best when he has a concrete theme to
work with. It doesn’t hurt that “Fuck KD” is the most delightfully batshit and
downright catchy song he’s done in years.